Parramatta Council wages war on cars in CBD

PARRAMATTA Council has revealed tough new measures to force cars out of the city by closing public carparks and making on-street parking more expensive.

Close to 800 parking spaces will be lost when Horwood Place car park in Parramatta closes.

PARRAMATTA Council has declared war on the car and will effectively ban them from the CBD.

Slashing the number of public parking spaces, raising parking fees — even limiting the number of spaces new apartment blocks can have — is all aimed at pushing shoppers and residents to walk, ride a bike or get on public transport.

The measures — outlined in the council’s draft Public Car Parking Strategy — will see the car attacked just as the population surges from 21,000 in the CBD to 68,000 in the next 40 years.

Every day around 22,000 people drive into Parramatta for work and they are right in the council’s sights.

The measures are designed to reduce congestion in Parramatta’s CBD. Picture: John Appleyard

More than 1000 spaces are set to go with the closure of car parks at Horwood Place plus Marion St, Riverbank, Leabeter and Fennel St.

And for those who still attempt to drive into the city — navigating around increasingly no-go pedestrianised streets — there will be another shock in a place where it really hurts — the hip pocket.

Car parking charges are set to rocket from $14.60 a day to $70.85, with the hourly rate set to double to $7.00 an hour.

And if that doesn’t discourage motorists, parking periods will come under the knife, allowing less time before parking tickets get slapped on your windscreen.

Short-term parking — much of it as brief as 15 minutes — will be provided, as well as more out of the city centre parking but the main push is to get people to step onto light rail, or walk or cycle.

Private vehicles account for 56 per cent of trips to the Parramatta CBD. Picture: Peter Kelly

Parramatta’s ratio of car parking spaces is roughly three times that of Sydney CBD but that has to change, according to council’s general manager Greg Dyer.

“We think in the future we will be larger than the city of Melbourne,” Mr Dyer said.

“Our vision is for a central city inspired by our communities. Our communities say growth is fine but just as long as it is well planned and well managed.”

Parramatta Chamber of Commerce president David Hill told the Advertiser his organisation wanted transport links to be extended before car spaces were cut and prices raised.

“If you have a large car park outside the CBD you still have to get those people into shops and businesses and that means good transport.”

The council plans to introduce park-and-ride facilities following the introduction of the light rail.

Recommendations made in the Parramatta CBD Strategic Transport Study, commissioned by the council as a key supporting document for the Parramatta CBD Planning Proposal, warns major transport and parking challenges will rear their heads by 2056.

The recommendations will undergo further detailed modelling and analysis to set local parking limits using the Sydney CBD as a benchmark.

INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE OLIVER IN PARRAMATTA

PARKING CUTS

● Axe more than 1000 car spaces from CBD

● Reduce long-stay parking within the CBD

● Increase parking fees

● Relocate spaces to the edge of the city including park and ride facilities